I love Sega. I still remember getting my Sega Genesis and Sonic & Knuckles back when I was maybe 7 or 8. I played the shit out of that thing and I still have it sitting in my closet, along with every Sonic game made for it (plus Comix Zone, Marble Madness, and a few other non-Sonic titles). I even have the Sega CD add-on for it, which let me play some awesome FMV games (such as Sewer Shark and the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers game). More importantly, it let me play Sonic CD.

When I was a bit older, my grandma sent me and my grandpa to Video Adventure (a local game store now called Video Games Etc, which isn't as cool a name in my opinion) and buy a Playstation for her house. She thought it'd be good for the little kids to play when they come to visit. We went to Video Adventure, but didn't leave with a Playstation. Instead, we got a Sega Saturn.

How could we resist? It was cheaper than the Playstation and they had a good deal on it (it came with an extra controller and a few games). It was a much better investment than the $700 3DO that my grandpa picked up in '93 (which also resides in my closet). I had a bit of time to enjoy some Sonic Jam and Sonic R, but after a while my grandma realized that it wasn't a Playstation and we had to take it back. I do owe the Playstation a bit of praise for all the awesomeness that was had on it, such as Digimon World (lol, that was the first game to come to mind), Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, and countless Square RPGs, but I miss that Saturn all the same.



Fast forward to THE DISTANT FUTURE, THE YEAR 2000 (sorry, couldn't resist using that video). The Sega Dreamcast had been out for a while already and was already on it's last legs. I was very excited about the Dreamcast, but I had to wait for the massive price drops to talk my mom into buying me one. So, for the low, low price of $100, I got a brand new Dreamcast along with Sonic Adventure, Sonic Shuffle, and a blue VMU (it was a Sonic bundle).



I loved the Dreamcast. I thought it was the most amazing system I had ever played and still think that (although the 360 is pretty awesome). It was my first experience with online play, although I never got the damn internet to work until about 5 minutes before they shut down the servers for Bomberman Online.........I played for about a minute, got kicked off and could never get back on again. D:

It had a fucking sweet memory card, with a little screen and tiny buttons. I remember playing Time Stalkers and it made extremely good use of the VMU. You could get minigames for it by buying them in-game and they were actually pretty sweet minigames. I remember one was a dungeon crawler (the type where you walk through a maze of sorts and fight the occasional monster and find the occasional treasure) and I probably played that more than the actual game.

I was always quite fond of the controller, also. Mostly for the fact that the VMU's screen could be seen through the controller and it would occasionally do stuff ranging from lame (like showing the game's logo and the occasional "Now Loading" message) to awesome (telling you how many points you got for doing a trick in Tony Hawk.......okay, I couldn't think of anything more awesome than that). The controller itself wasn't bad, but it doesn't really age well. I broke the analog stick off my favorite controller (the see-through green one in the picture, although I switched sticks with the one next to it) not long after I bought it. Then again, I did drop a computer tower on it. >_>



Of course, the best part about the Dreamcast was the games. If I had to pick my top 10 favorite games of all-time, I can guarantee that at least 3 of them would be Dreamcast games. Sonic Adventure wasn't exactly the Sonic I grew up with, but it was still fun as hell when I first played it (except for Big the Cat's levels..........I fucking hate that cat). It doesn't quite hold up that well now that I look back on it, but Sonic Adventure 2 is a different story. Sure, it did contain many of the elements that evolved (or devolved, perhaps) into the crapfest that Sonic games are today, but I thought it was pretty epic and it still is today. The final battle still gives me fucking chills. Even hearing the song that plays during it makes me want to go back and beat the game all over again.



The Sonic Adventure games weren't the only games that made the Dreamcast great. Jet Grind Radio would be right up there on my list of favorite games of all-time. Beautiful cel-shaded graphics, music by the greatest composer to ever live, and just plain awesome style all-around. Samba de Amigo was one of the first music games I really got into, though I never did get a working set of maracas.



Japan got all the really good stuff, though, like Rez and Ikaruga (which can't come to the Xbox Live Arcade soon enough). I'll admit that I never actually bought either one (well, I did buy Rez for the PS2 once), but I did download and burn them. They still get all the good stuff, with the occasional shoot 'em up being released to this day. Sega's swan song console is still hanging on by a thread to this day.



As you may have noticed, I mentioned burning downloaded copies of Ikaruga and Rez. Sadly, the system's biggest flaw was how easy it is to burn and play games on it without a modchip or anything. I'm not sure that had much to do with the console's early death, considering it probably took a bit of time after the system's launch to crack and pirate them. Ironically enough, I own more legal Dreamcast games than I do for any other system. I've burned my fair share of games, but I always buy them when I get the chance because I like collecting them. It's my favorite system and I'm always trying to get some more games for it. Not too long ago I bought new copies of Typing of the Dead and Phantasy Star Online from Amazon for only a couple bucks each (shipping and handling was actually more than the games themselves). I also found a copy of Shenmue (which I've been meaning to play) at a local game store a few months back.



The Dreamcast seemed to have died a very early death, but it still lives on in Japan and in the hearts of many homebrewers. I still have my Dreamcast and a decent collection of games to go with it. I love this system and it'll hold a place in my heart (and my entertainment center) for many years to come..........at least until Sega releases another console. Please, Sega? I'll be your bestest friend!